Automated Equipment Tracking for Service Technicians

ABSTRACT

The concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to automated tool tracking for service technicians. According to one aspect disclosed herein, a tool tracking system can collect tool data from a vehicle system of a vehicle. The tool data can be associated with a tool that is to be utilized by a service technician to provide, at least in part, a service at a customer location. The tool tracking system can store the tool data in a data store. The tool tracking system can map the tool data to the vehicle and can determine when the tool is no longer mapped to the vehicle. This can be indicative of the tool having been left, for example, at the customer location. The tool tracking system can create an alert to inform the service technician and/or another entity that the tool is no longer mapped to the vehicle.

BACKGROUND

Today, in addition to utilities such as electricity, gas, and water,services such as Internet and television have become essential for manycustomers. These services often require installation of equipment at thecustomer's location (e.g., home or business). For this reason, servicetechnicians are sent to the customer's location to install newequipment, repair existing equipment, and/or perform maintenance onexisting equipment. A service technician may be equipped withspecialized tools to perform at least some of these tasks. Thesespecialized tools are expensive and it is incumbent upon the servicetechnician to ensure these tools are not lost, stolen, or otherwisemisplaced such as being left at the customer's location. At times, aservice technician may arrive at the customer's location beforedetermining that they do not have a specific tool needed to complete ajob. This requires the job to be rescheduled and can result indissatisfied customers, in addition to the time and money lost by theservice technician and the service provider.

Some service providers have implemented tool tracking mechanisms. Aproblem with these mechanisms is that they place additional burden onthe service technician to not only timely and correctly perform his orher daily job duties, but also to manually log when a tool is used sothat tool inventory can be maintained with some accuracy. Othersolutions exist in which tools are labeled with tracking labels that canbe scanned to keep track of tool inventory. This requires additionalscanning equipment and still relies on the service technician tomanually scan the tools.

SUMMARY

Concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to automatedequipment tracking for service technicians. According to one aspect ofthe concepts and technologies disclosed herein, a tool tracking systemcan collect tool data from a vehicle system of a vehicle. The tool datacan be associated with a tool that is to be utilized by a servicetechnician to provide, at least in part, a service at a customerlocation. The tool tracking system can store the tool data in a datastore. The tool tracking system can map the tool data to the vehicle andcan determine when the tool is no longer mapped to the vehicle. This canbe indicative of the tool having been left, for example, at the customerlocation. The tool tracking system can create an alert to inform theservice technician and/or another entity that the tool is no longermapped to the vehicle.

In some embodiments, the tool tracking system can collect the tool datafrom the vehicle system in response to a scan performed by the vehiclesystem. The scan can be used to identify the tool via a tool sensor(e.g., via BLUETOOTH or other technology) associated with the tool. Thetool data can include a sensor address that uniquely identifies the toolsensor.

The tool tracking system also can collect vehicle data from the vehiclesystem. The vehicle data can uniquely identify the vehicle and alocation of the vehicle when the scan was performed. For example, priorto the vehicle leaving a starting location to travel to the customerlocation. The tool tracking system can map the tool data to the vehicledata and to the location of the vehicle after the scan was performed.The tool tracking system can determine the tool is no longer mapped tothe vehicle based upon a further scan performed by the vehicle system.The further scan can be performed, for example, when the vehicle isstarted prior to leaving the customer location, or when the vehiclearrives back at the starting location. In this case, the further scanwould not identify the sensor address that uniquely identifies the toolsensor, and therefore, the tool tracking system can determine that thetool is no longer with the vehicle.

In some embodiments, the tool tracking system can provide the alert to adevice associated with the service technician to inform the servicetechnician that the tool is no longer mapped to the vehicle.Additionally or alternatively, the tool tracking system can provide thealert to a service provider management system that can present the alertto a supervisor of the service technician to inform the supervisor thatthe tool is no longer mapped to the vehicle.

It should be appreciated that the above-described subject matter may beimplemented as a computer-controlled apparatus, a computer process, acomputing system, or as an article of manufacture such as acomputer-readable storage medium. These and various other features willbe apparent from a reading of the following Detailed Description and areview of the associated drawings.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intendedthat this Summary be used to limit the scope of the claimed subjectmatter. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited toimplementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in any part ofthis disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating aspects of an illustrativeoperating environment for various concepts disclosed herein.

FIG. 2A is a ladder diagram and FIG. 2B is a corresponding flow diagramillustrating aspects of a method for automatically determining that atool has been lost, identifying the lost tool, and providing an alert tonotify a service technician of the lost tool, according to anillustrative embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example computer systemcapable of implementing aspects of the embodiments presented herein.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example mobile device capableof implementing aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a network, according to an illustrativeembodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a cloud computing platform capable ofimplementing aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

While the subject matter described herein may be presented, at times, inthe general context of program modules that execute in conjunction withthe execution of an operating system and application programs on acomputer system, those skilled in the art will recognize that otherimplementations may be performed in combination with other types ofprogram modules. Generally, program modules include routines, programs,components, data structures, computer-executable instructions, and/orother types of structures that perform particular tasks or implementparticular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art willappreciate that the subject matter described herein may be practicedwith other computer systems, including hand-held devices, vehicles,wireless devices, multiprocessor systems, distributed computing systems,microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics,minicomputers, mainframe computers, routers, switches, other computingdevices described herein, and the like.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown byway of illustration specific embodiments or examples. Referring now tothe drawings, in which like numerals represent like elements throughoutthe several figures, aspects of automatic equipment tracking for servicetechnicians will be described.

Referring now to FIG. 1, aspects of an illustrative operatingenvironment 100 for various concepts disclosed herein will be described.It should be understood that the operating environment 100 and thevarious components thereof have been greatly simplified for purposes ofdiscussion. Accordingly, additional or alternative components of theoperating environment 100 can be made available without departing fromthe embodiments described herein.

The operating environment 100 shown in FIG. 1 includes a servicetechnician's vehicle (“vehicle”) 102. The vehicle 102 can be anindividual vehicle or can be part of a fleet of two or more vehicles.The vehicle 102 can be used by one or more service technicians 104(hereinafter, at times, referred to individually as “a servicetechnician 104”, or collectively as “service technicians 104”) who workfor, are contracted by, or are otherwise associated with a serviceprovider that provides one or more services to one or more customers 106(hereinafter, at times, referred to individually as “a customer 106”, orcollectively as “customers 106”). The customers 106 can be associatedwith one or more customer locations (also referred to as servicelocations) 108 (hereinafter, at times, referred to individually as “acustomer (or service) location 108”, or collectively as “customer (orservice) locations 108”) at which customer equipment 110 is to beinstalled, repaired, replaced, or otherwise serviced by the servicetechnician 104. The vehicle 102 can be equipped to carry one or moretools 112 (hereinafter, at times, referred to individually as “a tool112”, or collectively as “tools 112”) to be used by the servicetechnician 104 to install, repair, replace, or otherwise service thecustomer equipment 110, or else facilitate, at least in part, theservice provider in being able to provide a service to the customer 106at the customer location 108.

The vehicle 102 can be a car, truck, van, or any other vehicle. Thevehicle 102 can be part of a fleet of vehicles that the service providermaintains for the service technician 104 as part of his/her employmentor contract. The vehicle 102 alternatively can be individually ownedand/or operated by the service technician 104. In some embodiments, thevehicle 102 is a driver-operated vehicle and is manually driven by theservice technician 104. In some embodiments, the vehicle 102 is capableoperating in at least a partially autonomous control mode. In someembodiments, the vehicle 102 can be a fully autonomous vehicle. In someembodiments, the vehicle 102 can operate as a Level 3 or Level 4 vehicleas defined by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(“NHTSA”). The NHTSA defines a Level 3 vehicle as a limited self-drivingautomation vehicle that enables a driver to cede full control of allsafety-critical functions under certain traffic or environmentalconditions and in those conditions to rely heavily on the vehicle tomonitor for changes in those conditions requiring transition back todriver control. The driver is expected to be available for occasionalcontrol, but with sufficiently comfortable transition time. The GOOGLEcar, available from GOOGLE, is an example of a limited self-drivingautomation vehicle. The NHTSA defines a Level 4 vehicle as a fullself-driving automation vehicle that is designed to perform allsafety-critical driving functions and monitor roadway conditions for anentire trip to a destination. Such a design anticipates that the driverwill provide destination or navigation input, but is not expected to beavailable for control at any time during the trip.

The service technician 104 can be an employee of or contractor for aservice provider. For purposes of explanation, the service technician104 will be described herein as an employee of a service provider thatprovides one or more services to the customers 106 at the customerlocations 108. The service provider can be a telecommunications serviceprovider that provides landline telephone service, Internet service,and/or other telecommunications services. The service provider can be atelevision service provider that provides cable, satellite, IP, and/orother television services. Utility service providers such as powercompanies, water companies, sewage companies, and the like are alsocontemplated. It should be understood that the concepts and technologiesdisclosed herein can be applied to any service type provided by anyservice provider where the service technician 104 utilizes the tool(s)112 to perform his or her job. As such, the examples provided hereinshould not be construed as being limiting in any way.

The customer 106 can be an individual, a family, a group of customers, aneighborhood, a business, a government body, or any other entity that isat least partially responsible for requesting that the service beprovided at the customer location 108. The customer 106 may request theservice themselves or may have the service requested on their behalf.

The customer location 108 may be a home or a place of business of thecustomer 106. The customer location 108 may be any other location atwhich service is to be provided. The customer location 108 therefore maybe associated with a physical address, latitude/longitude coordinates, alandmark, a mile marker, a city/county/state/country border, or the likethat may be useful to the service technician 104 in locating thecustomer location 108.

The customer equipment 110 can be or can include anything that is usedto at least partially provide the service to the customer 106 at thecustomer location 108. As such, the customer equipment 110 can includecustomer premises equipment (“CPE”) such as an Internet modem, router,modem/router combination, switch, antenna, satellite dish, set-top box,remote control, combinations thereof, and/or the like. The customerequipment 110 alternatively or additionally may include batteries, powersupplies, wire, cable (e.g., fiber optic, copper, or coaxial cable),Ethernet cable, conduit, and/or other equipment that is used to providethe service to the customer 106 at the customer location 108. Asdescribed herein, the customer equipment 110 can be installed, repaired,replaced, or otherwise serviced by the service technician 104. Thecustomer equipment 110 may be owned by the service provider, thecustomer 106, or it may be jointly owned. The customer equipment 110 maybe provided to the customer 106 for free, a one-time fee, or a recurringfee (e.g., a monthly or yearly fee). It should be understood that theconcepts and technologies disclosed herein can be implemented regardlessof any contractual obligations between the customer 106 and the serviceprovider. As such, any particular business arrangement that may berepresentative of a contract is merely exemplary, and should not beconstrued as being limiting in any way.

The tools 112 can be utilized by the service technician 104 to install,repair, replace, otherwise service the customer equipment 110, or elsefacilitate, at least in part, the service to be provided the customer106 at the customer location 108. As such, the tool 112 can be any toolthe service technician 104 may need to use in support of his or her job.For example, the tool 112 can be any type of hand tool (e.g.,screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers, snips, and/or the like), any type ofpower tool (e.g., battery or AC power), or any type of specialty tool(e.g., a fiber splicer, testing equipment, and/or the like). The tool112 should not be construed as being limited to any specific tool, anyspecific brand of tool, any specific complexity of tool, or any specifictype of tool. As such, the tool 112 can include anything from a pencilto specialized testing equipment used for fiber optic installations. Itshould be understood, however, that the benefits of the concepts andtechnologies disclosed herein may be more fully realized when the tool112 is particularly expensive and/or limited in quantity (e.g., sharedamong several service technicians 104), although this may notnecessarily be the case.

The tool 112 can be associated with a tool sensor 114. The tool sensor114 can be attached to the tool 112, installed in the tool 112,manufactured as part of the tool 112, or otherwise physically associatedwith the tool 112 such that the tool sensor 114 can communicate thepresence of the tool 112 to a technician device 116 and/or a vehiclesystem 118. The presence can be communicated as proximity, location, orboth. The tool sensor 114, in some embodiments, can be or can includeone or more short-range radio communications components such asBLUETOOTH, BLUETOOTH Low Energy (“BLE”), ZIGBEE, Z-WAVE, RFID, adhocWI-FI, combinations thereof, and/or the like. The tool sensor 114 can beuniquely identified by a sensor address 120. The sensor address 120 canbe a network address that enables the tool sensor 114 to be uniquelyidentified by and communicate with the technician device 116 and/or thevehicle system 118. For example, the sensor address 120 may be aBLUETOOTH address, a media access control (“MAC”) address, a ZIGBEEaddress, a Z-WAVE address, a WI-FI access point name, or the like. Asused herein, the tool sensor 114 will be described as being configuredto communicate with the technician device 116 and the vehicle system 118via a BLE connection. Moreover, the sensor address 120 will be describedas a BLE address. BLE and the corresponding protocols and standards arewell-known, and therefore additional explanation regarding how the toolsensor 114 communicates with the technician device 116 and/or thevehicle system 118 via BLE will not be described herein.

The technician device 116 can be a mobile telephone, a smartphone, atablet, a smart watch, a fitness device, a pair of smart glasses, anaugmented reality (“AR”) device, a virtual reality (“VR”) device, acomputer of any form factor, another computing device, an Internet ofThings (“IoT”) devices, an unmanaged or managed (e.g., by the serviceprovider) devices, and/or the like. It should be understood that thefunctionality of the technician device 116 can be provided by a singledevice, by two or more similar devices, and/or by two or more dissimilardevices. The technician device 116 can be associated with a deviceaddress 122 that enables the technician device 116 to be uniquelyidentified by and to communicate with the tool sensor 114 and/or thevehicle system 118. For purposes of explanation, and not limitation, thetechnician device 116 will be described as a mobile device such as asmartphone or tablet. Moreover, the technician device 116 will bedescribed as being capable of communicating with the tool sensor 114 toascertain the presence (e.g., proximity and/or location) of the tool 112to the technician device 116, and therefore, presumably, the servicetechnician 104 as well. An example architecture for a mobile device willbe described below with reference to FIG. 4.

The vehicle system 118 can be or can include an on-board diagnostics(“OBD”) system, a hands-free telephone system, a vehicle entertainmentsystem (also commonly referred to as “an infotainment system”), avehicle navigation system, a global positioning system (“GPS”), avehicle engine control unit (“ECU”), and/or another system associatedwith the vehicle 102. The vehicle system 118 may be retrofitted into thevehicle 102 as aftermarket equipment or may be made available asstandard or optional original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) equipmentof the vehicle 102. It should be understood that the functionality ofthe vehicle system 118 can be provided by a single device, by two ormore similar devices, and/or by two or more dissimilar devices. Thevehicle system 118 can be associated with a vehicle address 124 thatenables the vehicle system 118 to be uniquely identified by and tocommunicate with the tool sensor 114 and/or the technician device 116.For purposes of explanation, and not limitation, the vehicle system 118will be described as an OBD2 system, which is a common component of manyvehicles today. In addition, the vehicle system 118 will be described asbeing capable of communicating with the tool sensor 114 via the sensoraddress 120 to ascertain the presence (e.g., proximity and/or location)of the tool 112 to the vehicle system 118.

It should be understood that the sensor address 120, the device address122, and the vehicle address 124 may, at times, be referred to as asingle address. In some embodiments, the tool sensor 114, the techniciandevice 116, and the vehicle system 118 are network-addressable tocommunicate with each other via their respective addresses, such as inaccordance with BLE protocols. The sensor address 120, the deviceaddress 122, and the vehicle address 124 may additionally include otheraddresses that enable the tool sensor 114, the technician device 116,and the vehicle system 118 to communicate via other protocols. As such,the sensor address 120, the device address 122, and the vehicle address124 are intended to be representative of any network address orcombination of network addresses associated with the tool sensor 114,the technician device 116, and the vehicle system 118, respectively.Moreover, for purposes of cataloging, tracking, or otherwise referringto (e.g., colloquially) to the tool sensor 114, the technician device116, and the vehicle system 118, these components may have names (e.g.,tool sensor 1, 2, 3, etc.; technician device 1, 2, 3, etc.; and vehiclesystem 1, 2, 3, etc.), numeric or alphanumeric identifiers (e.g., TS1,TS2, TS3, etc; TD1, TD2, TD3, etc.; and VS1, VS2, VS3, etc.), or anyother naming/identifying convention. In some implementations, networkaddresses and names/identifiers are combined in a database to easilyidentify the tool sensor 114, the technician device 116, and the vehiclesystem 118 from other tool sensors 114, technician devices 116, andvehicle systems 118.

The technician device 116 is illustrated as having device data 126 andtool data 128 stored thereon, such as in memory component of thetechnician device 116. Example memory components of the techniciandevice 116 are illustrated herein with reference to FIG. 3 (computersystem) and FIG. 4 (mobile device). Briefly, the memory component of thetechnician device 116 can include, but is not limited to, random accessmemory (“RAM”), volatile and non-volatile memory devices, semi-permanentor permanent memory types; for example, tape-based media, optical media,flash media, hard disks, combinations thereof, and the like. Moreover,the memory component of the technician device 116 can be separate fromthe technician device 116, integrated within the technician device 116,and, in some embodiments, can be provided, at least in part, as aremovable memory embodied, for example, as a memory card such as asecure digital card.

The device data 126 can be or can include any data associated with thetechnician device 116. The device data 126 can include deviceidentifying information such as an international mobile equipmentidentity (“IMEI”), an international mobile subscriber identity (“IMSI”),a mobile subscriber integrated services digital network (“MSISDN”),combinations thereof, and the like. The device data 126 can includeinformation associated with the service technician 104, including name,address, telephone number, and/or other information capable ofidentifying the service technician 104. The device data 126 can includecalendar information, photos, videos, other files, email, SMS messages,MMS messages, other message types, social media information, phone callrecords, web browsing history, application-specific data, passwords,combinations thereof, and the like. The device data 116 can includelocation information for where the technician device 116 is located at agiven time. The examples of the device data 126 disclosed herein shouldnot be construed as being limiting in any way.

The tool data 124 can be used by the technician device 128 to track thetool(s) 112. The tool data 124 can include data for the tool(s) 112 forwhich the service technician 104 is responsible. For example, theservice technician 104 may have base set of tools 112 that he or shekeeps on the vehicle 102 at all times, along with additional tools(e.g., specialty tools) that are associated with the service technician104 on a temporary basis such as a per-service-call basis or per-jobbasis. The tool data 124 can include tool identifying information suchas a general name, brand name, serial number, combinations thereof,and/or the like. The tool data 128 also can associate tool identifyinginformation with the sensor address 120 to enable the technician device116 to communicate with a particular tool. The tool data 124 can includesignal strength of a connection between the tool sensor 114 and thetechnician device 116 and/or the vehicle system 118. The examples oftool data 128 disclosed herein should not be construed as being limitingin any way.

The vehicle system 118 is illustrated as having vehicle data 130 storedthereon, such as in memory component of the vehicle system 118. Examplememory components of the vehicle system 118 are illustrated herein withreference to FIG. 3 (computer system) and FIG. 4 (mobile device).Briefly, the memory component of the vehicle system 118 can include, butis not limited to, RAM, volatile and non-volatile memory devices,semi-permanent or permanent memory types; for example, tape-based media,optical media, flash media, hard disks, combinations thereof, and thelike. Moreover, the memory component of the vehicle system 118 can beseparate from vehicle system 118, integrated within vehicle system 118,and, in some embodiments, can be provided, at least in part, as aremovable memory embodied, for example, as a memory card, such as asecure digital card.

The vehicle data 130 can be or can include any data associated with thevehicle 102. The vehicle data 130 can include vehicle identifyinginformation such vehicle identification number (“VIN”), OBD identifier,license plate number, make, model, trim, engine type, enginedisplacement, transmission type, options equipped, combinations thereof,and/or the like. The vehicle data 130 can include operationalinformation such as ignition position (e.g., ON, OFF, or accessory), GPSdata, OBD data, ECU data, combinations thereof, and/or the like. Thevehicle data 130 can include location information for where the vehicle102 is located at a given time.

In the illustrated example, the service technician 104 hasmisplaced/lost one or more of the tools 112—shown as lost tool(s) 132.For example, the service technician 104 might leave the customerlocation 108 and forget the lost tools 132 at the customer location 108.The reason(s) why the service technician 104 misplaced/lost the tool(s)112 is irrelevant to this disclosure. The concepts and technologiesdisclosed herein are capable of tracking the lost tools 132 in manyscenarios not explicitly described herein. As such, the examplesprovided herein should not be construed as being limiting in any way.

The technician device 116 and the vehicle system 118 are illustrated asbeing in communication with a tool tracking system 134 via a network136. The illustrated tool tracking system 134 includes software modulesfor executing various operations described herein. In particular, thetool tracking system 134 can include an orchestration module 138, anoise elimination module 140, a map module 142, and a deduper module144.

The tool tracking system 134 also can include a data store 146 that isused to store, at least in part, the device data 126, the tool data 128,and the vehicle data 130. The tool tracking system 134 can receive thedevice data 126, the tool data 128, and/or the vehicle data 130 throughvarious communication paths, such as user datagram protocol (“UDP”),transfer control protocol (“TCP”), and/or hypertext transfer protocol(“HTTP”). Based upon operations performed via execution of the softwaremodules, the tool tracking system 134 can create one or more alerts 148to notify the service technician 104 of the lost tool(s) 132, as will bedescribed in greater detail herein. The alert(s) 148 can be sent to thetechnician device 116, the vehicle system 118, and/or a service providermanagement system 150, which is also illustrated as being incommunication with the network 136. An example cloud computing platformthat can be used to implement the tool tracking system 134 will bedescribed in detail herein with reference to FIG. 6.

The orchestration module 138 can receive input data such as the devicedata 126 and/or the tool data 128 from the technician device 116, and/orthe vehicle data 130 from the vehicle system 118. The orchestrationmodule 138 can store the data 126/128/130 in the data store 146 asshown. The orchestration module 138 can be capable of understanding anyprotocol utilized by the technician device 116 and/or the vehicle system118. In addition, the orchestration module 138 can receive the data126/128/130 in a format that is sent without manipulation (e.g.,converting data types) to more efficiently store the data 126/128/130 inthe data store 146. Storing the data without manipulation allows theorchestration module 138 to be modified to accommodate the addition ofnew protocols and data fields. The orchestration module 138 orchestratesdata processing with the other modules disclosed herein. Some exampleoperations that can be performed by the orchestration module 138 will bedescribed in greater detail below with reference to FIGS. 2A-2B.

The noise elimination module 140 can be invoked by the orchestrationmodule 138 from time-to-time to clean, reformat, and store the cleanedand reformatted data in the data store 146. The noise elimination module140 can remove any “noise” from the data 126/128/130. Sources of “noise”can be, but are not limited to, data collected from new tools that wererecently put into service, data collected inconsistently over a periodof time, data collected from sources of interfaces, combinationsthereof, and/or the like. Some example operations that can be performedby the noise elimination module 140 will be described in greater detailbelow with reference to FIGS. 2A-2B.

The noise elimination module 140 can use the data 126/128/130 stored bythe orchestration module 138 to determine if any unassociated data ispresent, such as, for example, BLE tags (MAC IDs) that are reported onceand are not repeated over a defined interval (e.g., 4 hours, 1 day, or 1week). This noise identification interval can be a learnt variable bythe noise elimination module 140 based on feedback provided by theorchestration module 138. The noise elimination module 140 can removeone or more reported BLE tags if they are rarely reported (e.g., onceduring the noise interval). Thus, removing interference noise caused bybeing proximity of the vehicle system 118 (and/or technician device 116)being present to other non-relevant vehicles or devices. The noiseelimination module 140 also can use certain parameters such as relativesignal strength of a connection to the vehicle system 118 (or techniciandevice 116 as the case may be) to approximate the distance to thevehicle 102 and/or technician device 116 in resolving conflicts of onetool 112 that is being reported by two different devices. If the signalstrength varies too much (e.g., determined by a signal strengthvariability window), the noise elimination module 140 can considerweaker signal as noise and remove the record that pertains to thatparticular tool 112.

The map module 142 can be invoked by the orchestration module 138 tocreate a unique representation for each of the vehicles 102 in a fleetafter removing any “noise” is reported by the cross communication thatcan occur during various events occurring in the field. The map module142 can arrange the data 126/128/130 in a way that represents thereality of its usage. However, there are reasons why the map module 142may fail to get full picture/map, and the map module 142 therefore cancommunicate back to the orchestration module 138 what the error rate iswhich can be considered for setting a noise interval later on when thenoise elimination module 140 is invoked.

The map module 142 can use the data 126/128/130 left by the noiseelimination module 140 along with supplied employee hierarchyinformation to understand each service technician 104 who is drivingeach of the vehicles 102, carrying which tools 112, and to whichsupervisor 152 each service technician 104 reports. The map module 142can achieve this by taking a single record of the vehicle data 130(e.g., a vehicle reports that it recognized vehicle ignition ON, drove 1mile, and reported a location). The map module 142 can utilize thisrecord and can scan for a specific VIN number of the vehicle 102 thatthe tool 112 was in that day to associate a specific tool 112 with beingin a specific vehicle 102. The map module 142 can scan for other eventsthat the tool 112 may have reported to indicate if the tool 112 waspulled off the vehicle 120, or if the ignition of the vehicle 120 wasswitched off for the day. The map module 142, as it scans through theoriginal unassociated data, also can identify identifies the sensoraddress 120 as being in the vehicle 102 that was reported by the tool112.

The map module 142 can scan through all unassociated (but cleaned—i.e.,processed by the noise elimination module 140) to build associationsthat indicate consistent association, such as the tool sensor 114 of thetool 112 being in the vehicle 120 reported through the vehicle system118 all the way from a starting location to an ending location when thevehicle ignition was switched off. And, also that the vehicle 102 isdriven by the service technician 104 reports to a supervisor 152.

During this transformation of the data 126/128/130 from unassociated tostructured, the map module 142 can find various errors/conflicts such asthe sensor address 120 being reported both in two or more of thevehicles 102. The map module 142 can use time and location informationto resolve a conflict. For example, the map module 142 can resolve aconflict that the tool 112 associated with the sensor address 120 isshown as being present in two vehicles parked/idle next to one anotherin depot as picked up by the vehicle system 118 associated with eachvehicle. However, as those vehicles depart to various destinations, themap module 142 can determine that the sensor address 120 is present inthe first vehicle and not the second vehicle, or vice versa. In someinstances, the map module 142 might not receive such clarification, andtherefore may mistakenly count these conflicts. The map module 142 canidentify similar conflicts with the service technician 104 using onevehicle 120 today but later using another vehicle 102 from the same or adifferent fleet. As dispatch job data being used gets cleared, the mapmodule 142 can attempt to resolve any conflicts. But if a conflict isnot cleared, it can be counted as a different category of data conflictcategory.

The map module 142 can store the resolved structured data as well asretain unresolved data for future use and can communicate currentconflicts to the orchestration module 138. The orchestration module 138can use this data for to improve the noise interval.

The deduper module 144 can be invoked by the orchestration module 138 toremove duplicate entries such as the sensor address 120 being associatedwith multiple vehicles 102 during a trip to the customer location 108.The deduper module 144 can mark the duplicate entries for futureprocessing. If the identified duplicates remained and are not resolvedwithin a specified de-dupe time window, the deduper module 144 canremove references to the associated sensor address 120 until the toolsensor 114 reports additional data.

The service provider management system 150 can be used by a supervisor152 to oversee any number of service technicians 104 and theirassociated vehicles 102 and tools 112. The service provider managementsystem 150 can execute a tool management application 154 that providesan interface through which the supervisor 152 can view the status of thetool 112, the technician device 116, the vehicle system 118, and/orother information associated with the service technician 104 during thecourse of his or her daily job duties, such as visiting the customer 106at the customer location 108 to service the customer equipment 110. Thetool management application 154 also can present the alert(s) 148 to thesupervisor 152. The tool management application 154 may includeadditional functionality such as to facilitate communications (e.g.,text, voice, and/or video) with the service technician 104 via thetechnician device 116 and/or the vehicle system 118. The network 136 canencompass any and all networks used to enable communications between anycombination of the technician device 116, the vehicle system 118, thetool tracking system 134, and the service provider management system150. As such, the network 136 can include any combination of accessnetworks, mobile communications networks (e.g., a cellular network), IPnetworks, and the Internet, for example. An exemplary embodiment of thenetwork 136 is illustrated and described herein with reference to FIG.5.

Turning now to FIGS. 2A-2B, a ladder diagram 200A and corresponding flowdiagram 200B that collectively illustrate aspects of a method 200 forautomatically determining that a tool 112 has been lost, identifying thelost tool 132, and providing an alert 148 to notify a service technician104 of the lost tool 132 will be described, according to an illustrativeembodiment. It should be understood that the operations of the methodsdisclosed herein are not necessarily presented in any particular orderand that performance of some or all of the operations in an alternativeorder(s) is possible and is contemplated. The operations have beenpresented in the demonstrated order for ease of description andillustration. Operations may be added, omitted, and/or performedsimultaneously, without departing from the scope of the concepts andtechnologies disclosed herein.

It also should be understood that the methods disclosed herein can beended at any time and need not be performed in its entirety. Some or alloperations of the methods, and/or substantially equivalent operations,can be performed by execution of computer-readable instructions includedon a computer storage media, as defined herein. The term“computer-readable instructions,” and variants thereof, as used herein,is used expansively to include routines, applications, applicationmodules, program modules, programs, components, data structures,algorithms, and the like. Computer-readable instructions can beimplemented on various system configurations including single-processoror multiprocessor systems or devices, minicomputers, mainframecomputers, personal computers, hand-held computing devices,microprocessor-based, programmable consumer electronics, combinationsthereof, and the like.

Thus, it should be appreciated that the logical operations describedherein are implemented (1) as a sequence of computer implemented acts orprogram modules running on a computing system and/or (2) asinterconnected machine logic circuits or circuit modules within thecomputing system. The implementation is a matter of choice dependent onthe performance and other requirements of the computing system.Accordingly, the logical operations described herein are referred tovariously as states, operations, structural devices, acts, or modules.These states, operations, structural devices, acts, and modules may beimplemented in software, in firmware, in special purpose digital logic,and any combination thereof. As used herein, the phrase “cause aprocessor to perform operations” and variants thereof is used to referto causing one or more processors of the technician device 116, thevehicle system 118, the tool tracking system 134, the service providermanagement system 150, and/or one or more other computing systems and/ordevices disclosed herein to perform operations.

For purposes of illustrating and describing some of the concepts of thepresent disclosure, the methods disclosed herein are described as beingperformed, at least in part, by the tool tracking system 134 viaexecution of one or more software modules, such as the orchestrationmodule 138, the noise elimination module 140, the map module 142, andthe deduper module 144. It should be understood that additional and/oralternative devices can provide the functionality described herein viaexecution of one or more modules, applications, and/or other software.Thus, the illustrated embodiments are illustrative, and should not beviewed as being limiting in any way.

The method 200 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2A-2B andadditional reference to FIG. 1. The ladder diagram 200A illustrates theorchestration module 138, the noise elimination 140, the map module 142,and the deduper module 144 executed by the tool tracking system 134. Itshould be understood that these modules are illustrated as separatesoftware components capable of performing specific operations whenexecuted by one or more processors (hardware or virtual) of the tooltracking system 134. In practice, these modules can be combined in anyway.

The method 200 begins and proceeds to operation 202, where theorchestration module 138 collects data from the technician device 116and the vehicle system 118. The data, in this example, includes acombination of the device data 126, the tool data 128, and the vehicledata 130 (shown collectively as data 126/128/130 in FIG. 2A).

From operation 202, the method 200 proceeds to operation 204. Atoperation 204, the orchestration module 138 stores the data 126/128/130in the data store 146. The orchestration module 138 can store the data126/128/130 in association with the vehicle(s) 102, the servicetechnician(s) 104, the customer(s) 106, the customer location(s) 108,the customer equipment 110, the tool(s) 112, the tool sensor(s) 114, thetechnician device(s) 116, and the vehicle system(s) 118 via variousidentifiers disclosed herein and/or the sensor address(es) 120, thedevice address(es) 122, and/or the vehicle address(es) 124 as the casemay be. Moreover, the orchestration module 138 can store the data126/128/130 using any database technology to enable such associationsfor additional processing.

From operation 204, the method 200 proceeds to operation 206. Atoperation 206, the orchestration module 138 periodically or fromtime-to-time provides the data 126, 128, 130 to the noise eliminationmodule 140 to be cleaned by removal of any noise from the data 126, 128,130. Noise can be defined as a matter of preference, such as the serviceprovider's preferred definition. As one non-limiting example, the noisydata might include data associated with the tool sensor(s) 114 when agiven vehicle 102 in the fleet is stopped, such as at a traffic light orstop sign. This is not the final destination of the vehicle 102 for agiven trip, and therefore any data from the tool sensor(s) 114 while thevehicle 102 is stopped (i.e., at a location that is not the customerlocation 108) can be removed from the data 126/128/130 collected by theorchestration module 138. Noise may take alternative forms notspecifically described herein.

From operation 206, the method 200 proceeds to operation 208. Atoperation 208, the noise elimination module 140 processes the data126/128/130, resulting in cleaned data 126′/128′/130′ that is then sentto the orchestration module 138 to be stored in the data store 146. Thisprocess can include eliminating any data that matches a set of criteriadefining it as noise. The noise elimination module 140 can process thedata 126/128/130 on a per vehicle basis based upon individual trips madeby the vehicle 102, and based upon criteria such as when the ignition ofthe vehicle 102 is ON, when the vehicle 102 is moving, and when theignition of the vehicle 102 is OFF. Other scenarios can be taken intoconsideration such as, for example, idling during the trip or a singletrip that may include stopping at a traffic signal or stop sign as notedabove. The noise elimination module 140 can index the tool data 128across data collected from a given fleet to identify the tool sensor(s)114 that were not part of that fleet.

From operation 208, the method proceeds to operation 210. At operation210, the orchestration module 138 receives the cleaned data126′/128′/130′ from the noise elimination module 140. From operation210, the method 200 proceeds to operation 212, where the orchestrationmodule 138 provides the cleaned data 126′/128′/130′ to the map module144.

From operation 212, the method 200 proceeds to operation 214. Atoperation 214, the map module 144 maps the cleaned data 126′/128′/130′to specific vehicle(s) in the fleet, resulting in mapped data126″/128″/130″. From operation 214, the method 200 proceeds to operation216. At operation 216, the map module 144 provides the mapped data126″/128″/130″ to the orchestration module 138. The orchestration module138, at operation 218, then provides the mapped data 126″/128″/130″ tothe deduper module 144.

From operation 218, the method 200 proceeds to operation 220. Atoperation 220, the deduper module 144 removes duplicate data from themapped data 126″/128″/130″, resulting in deduped data 126″′,128″′/130′″. From operation 220, the method 200 proceeds to operation222. At operation 222, the deduper module 144 provides the deduped data126″′/128′″/130′″ to the orchestration module 138.

From operation 222, the method 200 proceeds to operation 224. Atoperation 224, the orchestration module 138 creates the alert(s) 148based upon the deduped data 126′″ /128′″ /130′″. From operation 224, themethod 200 proceeds to operation 226. At operation 226, theorchestration module 138 provides the alert(s) 148 to the servicetechnician 104. For example, the orchestration module 138 can send thealert(s) 148 to the service technician 104 via text, voice, image,sound, video, buzzer (e.g., vibration mechanism of the technician device116), combination thereof, and/or the like. The alert(s) 148 can notifythe service technician 104 of the lost tool(s) 132 identified based uponthe deduped data 126′″/128′″/130′″. The orchestration module 138 alsocan provide the alert(s) 148 to the service provider management system150 for review by the supervisor 152 via the tool management application154 executing thereon.

From operation 226, the method 200 proceeds to operation 228. The method200 can end at operation 228.

An example use case of the method 200 will now be described. The servicetechnicians 104 travels in the vehicle 102 to the customer location 108to install new services or repair existing services. The servicetechnician 104 takes the tools 112 that are stored in the vehicle 102,or if the service technician 104 needs a specific tool 112, the servicetechnician 104 may that tool from a colleague or other source and takethe tool 112 with them in the vehicle 102 to the customer location 108.The tool 112 is associated with a tool sensor 114 having an associatedsensor address 120, such as a BLE tag. When the service technician 104puts the tool 112 in the car and turns the ignition ON, the vehiclesystem 118 is activated (e.g., as part of the OBD2 of the vehicle 102)and scans for a BLE advertisement from the tool sensor 114. This allowsthe vehicle system 118 to send the data 126/128/130 to the cloudorchestration module 138 along with the reported sensor address 120(e.g., BLE tag). The vehicle system 118 can report the location and thesensor address 120 while the vehicle 102 is traveling. While traveling,the vehicle system 118 may receive unknown sensor addresses 120 as welland these also can be sent to the orchestration module 138 for storagein the data store 146.

The service technician 104 may take the tool 112 with them to thecustomer location 108 and unknowingly leave the tool 112 at the customerlocation 108 (i.e., the lost tool 132). While returning back to aservice provider location (not shown; e.g., a service provider vehicledepot), the vehicle system 118 again reports all sensor addresses 120that are present based upon a scan of the sensor addresses 120 of thetools 112 on the vehicle 102. The tool tracking system 134 can recognizethat the lost tool 132 left the service provider location or otherstarting location but never returned. The tool tracking system 134 cansend an alert 148 to the service technician 104 and/or the supervisor152. The alert 148 can include the sensor address 120 and/or otheridentifying information to identify the lost tool 132.

In some instances, the tool 112 may be left at the correct location(e.g., if the service technician 104 intends to return to continue workat a later time), in which case, the supervisor 152 can use the toolmanagement application 154 executed by the service provider managementsystem 150 to manually clear the alert 148 without any further action.However, if the lost tool 132 was forgotten at the customer location108, the alert 148 can be used as a reminder for the service technician104 to return to the customer location 108 and recover the lost tool132.

The orchestration module 132 can perform inventory updates/trackingwhile the map module 142 is processing the data 126/128/130. The mapmodule 142 also returns, at the end of this process, any new data126/128/130 (e.g., any new BLE tags, devices, VINS, and/or servicetechnicians it encountered), along with a confidence score with regardto whether the new data 126/128/130 is noise missed by the noiseelimination module 140 or indeed new, viable data.

The orchestration module 132 can use a date when a new tool 112,technician device 116, vehicle 102, and/or service technician 104 is/areadded to the tool tracking system 134. The orchestration module 132 canuse a time window to mark those tools 112, technician devices 116,and/or vehicles 102 that are not in-use or the service technician(s) 104that are not in a capacity of employment to drive the vehicles 102.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a computer system 300 configuredto perform various operations disclosed herein. The computer system 300includes a processing unit 302, a memory 304, one or more user interfacedevices 306, one or more input/output (“I/O”) devices 308, and one ormore network devices 310, each of which is operatively connected to asystem bus 312. The system bus 312 enables bi-directional communicationbetween the processing unit 302, the memory 304, the user interfacedevices 306, the I/O devices 308, and the network devices 310. In someembodiments, the technician device 116, the vehicle system 118, the tooltracking system 134, the service provider management system 150, one ormore components thereof, some combination thereof is/are configured, atleast in part, like the computer system 300. It should be understood,however, that the technician device 116, the vehicle system 118, thetool tracking system 134, and/or the service provider management system150 may include additional functionality or include less functionalitythan now described.

The processing unit 302 might be a standard central processor thatperforms arithmetic and logical operations, a more specific purposeprogrammable logic controller (“PLC”), a programmable gate array, orother type of processor known to those skilled in the art and suitablefor controlling the operation of the computer system 300. Processingunits are generally known, and therefore are not described in furtherdetail herein.

The memory 304 communicates with the processing unit 302 via the systembus 312. In some embodiments, the memory 304 is operatively connected toa memory controller (not shown) that enables communication with theprocessing unit 302 via the system bus 312. The illustrated memory 304includes an operating system 314 and one or more applications 316.

The operating system 314 can include, but is not limited to, members ofthe WINDOWS, WINDOWS CE, WINDOWS MOBILE, and/or WINDOWS PHONE familiesof operating systems from MICROSOFT CORPORATION, the LINUX family ofoperating systems, the SYMBIAN family of operating systems from SYMBIANLIMITED, the BREW family of operating systems from QUALCOMM CORPORATION,the MAC OS and/or iOS families of operating systems from APPLE INC., theFREEBSD family of operating systems, the SOLARIS family of operatingsystems from ORACLE CORPORATION, other operating systems such asproprietary operating systems, and the like.

The user interface devices 306 may include one or more devices withwhich a user accesses the computer system 300. The user interfacedevices 306 may include, but are not limited to, computers, servers,personal digital assistants, telephones (e.g., cellular, IP, orlandline), or any suitable computing devices. The I/O devices 308 enablea user to interface with the program modules. In one embodiment, the I/Odevices 308 are operatively connected to an I/O controller (not shown)that enables communication with the processing unit 302 via the systembus 312. The I/O devices 308 may include one or more input devices, suchas, but not limited to, a keyboard, a mouse, a touchscreen, or anelectronic stylus. Further, the I/O devices 308 may include one or moreoutput devices, such as, but not limited to, a display screen or aprinter. In some embodiments, the I/O devices 308.

The network devices 310 enable the computer system 300 to communicatewith other networks or remote systems via the network 136. Examples ofthe network devices 310 include, but are not limited to, a modem, aradio frequency (“RF”) or infrared (“IR”) transceiver, a telephonicinterface, a bridge, a router, or a network card. The network 136 mayinclude a wireless network such as, but not limited to, a WLAN such as aWI-FI network, a WWAN, a wireless PAN (“WPAN”) such as BLUETOOTH, or awireless MAN (“WMAN”). Alternatively, the network 136 may be a wirednetwork such as, but not limited to, a WAN such as the Internet, a LANsuch as the Ethernet, a wired PAN, or a wired MAN.

Turning now to FIG. 4, an illustrative mobile device 400 and componentsthereof will be described. In some embodiments, the technician device116 described above with reference to FIG. 1 can be configured as and/orcan have an architecture similar or identical to the mobile device 400described herein in FIG. 4. It should be understood, however, that thetechnician device 116 may or may not include the functionality describedherein with reference to FIG. 4. While connections are not shown betweenthe various components illustrated in FIG. 4, it should be understoodthat some, none, or all of the components illustrated in FIG. 4 can beconfigured to interact with one another to carry out various devicefunctions. In some embodiments, the components are arranged so as tocommunicate via one or more busses (not shown). Thus, it should beunderstood that FIG. 4 and the following description are intended toprovide a general understanding of a suitable environment in whichvarious aspects of embodiments can be implemented, and should not beconstrued as being limiting in any way.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the mobile device 400 can include a display402 for displaying data. According to various embodiments, the display402 can be configured to display the device data 126, the tool data 128,the vehicle data 130, the alert(s) 148, network connection information,various GUI elements, text, images, video, virtual keypads and/orkeyboards, messaging data, notification messages, metadata, Internetcontent, device status, time, date, calendar data, device preferences,map and location data, combinations thereof, and/or the like. The mobiledevice 400 also can include a processor 404 and a memory or other datastorage device (“memory”) 406. The processor 404 can be configured toprocess data and/or can execute computer-executable instructions storedin the memory 406. The computer-executable instructions executed by theprocessor 404 can include, for example, an operating system 408, one ormore applications 410, other computer-executable instructions stored inthe memory 406, or the like. In some embodiments, the applications 410also can include a UI application (not illustrated in FIG. 4).

The UI application can interface with the operating system 408 tofacilitate user interaction with functionality and/or data stored at themobile device 400 and/or stored elsewhere. In some embodiments, theoperating system 408 can include a member of the SYMBIAN OS family ofoperating systems from SYMBIAN LIMITED, a member of the WINDOWS MOBILEOS and/or WINDOWS PHONE OS families of operating systems from MICROSOFTCORPORATION, a member of the PALM WEBOS family of operating systems fromHEWLETT PACKARD CORPORATION, a member of the BLACKBERRY OS family ofoperating systems from RESEARCH IN MOTION LIMITED, a member of the IOSfamily of operating systems from APPLE INC., a member of the ANDROID OSfamily of operating systems from GOOGLE INC., and/or other operatingsystems. These operating systems are merely illustrative of somecontemplated operating systems that may be used in accordance withvarious embodiments of the concepts and technologies described hereinand therefore should not be construed as being limiting in any way.

The UI application can be executed by the processor 404 to aid a user indata communications, entering/deleting data, entering and setting userIDs and passwords for device access, configuring settings, manipulatingcontent and/or settings, multimode interaction, interacting with otherapplications 410, and otherwise facilitating user interaction with theoperating system 408, the applications 410, and/or other types orinstances of data 412 (e.g., the device data 126 and/or the tool data128) that can be stored at the mobile device 400.

The applications 410, the data 412, and/or portions thereof can bestored in the memory 406 and/or in a firmware 414, and can be executedby the processor 404. The firmware 414 also can store code for executionduring device power up and power down operations. It can be appreciatedthat the firmware 414 can be stored in a volatile or non-volatile datastorage device including, but not limited to, the memory 406 and/or aportion thereof.

The mobile device 400 also can include an input/output (“I/O”) interface416. The I/O interfaced 416 can be configured to support theinput/output of data such as location information, presence statusinformation, user IDs, passwords, and application initiation (start-up)requests. In some embodiments, the I/O interface 416 can include ahardwire connection such as a universal serial bus (“USB”) port, amini-USB port, a micro-USB port, an audio jack, a PS2 port, an IEEE 1394(“FIREWIRE”) port, a serial port, a parallel port, an Ethernet (RJ45)port, an RJ11 port, a proprietary port, combinations thereof, or thelike. In some embodiments, the mobile device 400 can be configured tosynchronize with another device to transfer content to and/or from themobile device 400. In some embodiments, the mobile device 400 can beconfigured to receive updates to one or more of the applications 410 viathe I/O interface 416, though this is not necessarily the case. In someembodiments, the I/O interface 416 accepts I/O devices such askeyboards, keypads, mice, interface tethers, printers, plotters,external storage, touch/multi-touch screens, touch pads, trackballs,joysticks, microphones, remote control devices, displays, projectors,medical equipment (e.g., stethoscopes, heart monitors, and other healthmetric monitors), modems, routers, external power sources, dockingstations, combinations thereof, and the like. It should be appreciatedthat the I/O interface 416 may be used for communications between themobile device 400 and a network device or local device.

The mobile device 400 also can include a communications component 418.The communications component 418 can be configured to interface with theprocessor 404 to facilitate wired and/or wireless communications withone or more networks. In some embodiments, the communications component418 includes a multimode communications subsystem for facilitatingcommunications via the cellular network and one or more other networks.

The communications component 418, in some embodiments, includes one ormore transceivers. The one or more transceivers, if included, can beconfigured to communicate over the same and/or different wirelesstechnology standards with respect to one another. For example, in someembodiments, one or more of the transceivers of the communicationscomponent 418 may be configured to communicate using GSM, CDMAONE,CDMA2000, LTE, and various other 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G, 4.5G, 5G, and greatergeneration technology standards. Moreover, the communications component418 may facilitate communications over various channel access methods(which may or may not be used by the aforementioned standards)including, but not limited to, TDMA, FDMA, W-CDMA, OFDM, SDMA, and thelike.

In addition, the communications component 418 may facilitate datacommunications using GPRS, EDGE, the HSPA protocol family includingHSDPA, EUL or otherwise termed HSUPA, HSPA+, and various other currentand future wireless data access standards. In the illustratedembodiment, the communications component 418 can include a firsttransceiver (“TxRx”) 420A that can operate in a first communicationsmode (e.g., GSM). The communications component 418 also can include anN^(th) transceiver (“TxRx”) 420N that can operate in a secondcommunications mode relative to the first transceiver 420A (e.g., UMTS).While two transceivers 420A-420N (hereinafter collectively and/orgenerically referred to as “transceivers 420”) are shown in FIG. 4, itshould be appreciated that less than two, two, and/or more than twotransceivers 420 can be included in the communications component 418.

The communications component 418 also can include an alternativetransceiver (“Alt TxRx”) 422 for supporting other types and/or standardsof communications. According to various contemplated embodiments, thealternative transceiver 422 can communicate using various communicationstechnologies such as, for example, WI-FI, WIMAX, BLUETOOTH, infrared,infrared data association (“IRDA”), near field communications (“NFC”),other RF technologies, combinations thereof, and the like. In someembodiments, the communications component 418 also can facilitatereception from terrestrial radio networks, digital satellite radionetworks, internet-based radio service networks, combinations thereof,and the like. The communications component 418 can process data from anetwork such as the Internet, an intranet, a broadband network, a WI-FIhotspot, an Internet service provider (“ISP”), a digital subscriber line(“DSL”) provider, a broadband provider, combinations thereof, or thelike.

The mobile device 400 also can include one or more sensors 424. Thesensors 424 can include temperature sensors, light sensors, air qualitysensors, movement sensors, accelerometers, magnetometers, gyroscopes,infrared sensors, orientation sensors, noise sensors, microphonesproximity sensors, combinations thereof, and/or the like. Additionally,audio capabilities for the mobile device 400 may be provided by an audioI/O component 426. The audio I/O component 426 of the mobile device 400can include one or more speakers for the output of audio signals, one ormore microphones for the collection and/or input of audio signals,and/or other audio input and/or output devices.

The illustrated mobile device 400 also can include a subscriber identitymodule (“SIM”) system 428. The SIM system 428 can include a universalSIM (“USIM”), a universal integrated circuit card (“UICC”) and/or otheridentity devices. The SIM system 428 can include and/or can be connectedto or inserted into an interface such as a slot interface 430. In someembodiments, the slot interface 430 can be configured to acceptinsertion of other identity cards or modules for accessing various typesof networks. Additionally, or alternatively, the slot interface 430 canbe configured to accept multiple subscriber identity cards. Becauseother devices and/or modules for identifying users and/or the mobiledevice 400 are contemplated, it should be understood that theseembodiments are illustrative, and should not be construed as beinglimiting in any way.

The mobile device 400 also can include an image capture and processingsystem 432 (“image system”). The image system 432 can be configured tocapture or otherwise obtain photos, videos, and/or other visualinformation. As such, the image system 432 can include cameras, lenses,charge-coupled devices (“CCDs”), combinations thereof, or the like. Themobile device 400 may also include a video system 434. The video system434 can be configured to capture, process, record, modify, and/or storevideo content. Photos and videos obtained using the image system 432 andthe video system 434, respectively, may be added as message content toan MMS message, email message, and sent to another device. The videoand/or photo content also can be shared with other devices via varioustypes of data transfers via wired and/or wireless communication devicesas described herein.

The mobile device 400 also can include one or more location components436. The location components 436 can be configured to send and/orreceive signals to determine a geographic location of the mobile device400. According to various embodiments, the location components 436 cansend and/or receive signals from global positioning system (“GPS”)devices, assisted-GPS (“A-GPS”) devices, WI-FI/WIMAX and/or cellularnetwork triangulation data, combinations thereof, and the like. Thelocation component 436 also can be configured to communicate with thecommunications component 418 to retrieve triangulation data fordetermining a location of the mobile device 400. In some embodiments,the location component 436 can interface with cellular network nodes,telephone lines, satellites, location transmitters and/or beacons,wireless network transmitters and receivers, combinations thereof, andthe like. In some embodiments, the location component 436 can includeand/or can communicate with one or more of the sensors 424 such as acompass, an accelerometer, and/or a gyroscope to determine theorientation of the mobile device 400. Using the location component 436,the mobile device 400 can generate and/or receive data to identify itsgeographic location, or to transmit data used by other devices todetermine the location of the mobile device 400. The location component436 may include multiple components for determining the location and/ororientation of the mobile device 400.

The illustrated mobile device 400 also can include a power source 438.The power source 438 can include one or more batteries, power supplies,power cells, and/or other power subsystems including alternating current(“AC”) and/or direct current (“DC”) power devices. The power source 438also can interface with an external power system or charging equipmentvia a power I/O component 440. Because the mobile device 400 can includeadditional and/or alternative components, the above embodiment should beunderstood as being illustrative of one possible operating environmentfor various embodiments of the concepts and technologies describedherein. The described embodiment of the mobile device 400 isillustrative, and should not be construed as being limiting in any way.

As used herein, communication media includes computer-executableinstructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in amodulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transportmechanism and includes any delivery media. The term “modulated datasignal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristicschanged or set in a manner as to encode information in the signal. Byway of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wiredmedia such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wirelessmedia such as acoustic, RF, infrared, and other wireless media.Combinations of the any of the above should also be included within thescope of computer-readable media.

By way of example, and not limitation, computer storage media mayinclude volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable mediaimplemented in any method or technology for storage of information suchas computer-executable instructions, data structures, program modules,or other data. For example, computer media includes, but is not limitedto, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other solid state memorytechnology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (“DVD”), HD-DVD, BLU-RAY, orother optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic diskstorage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which canbe used to store the desired information and which can be accessed bythe mobile device 400 or other devices or computers described herein,such as the computer system 400 described above with reference to FIG.4. For purposes of the claims, the phrase “computer-readable storagemedium” and variations thereof, does not include waves, signals, and/orother transitory and/or intangible communication media, per se.

Encoding the software modules presented herein also may transform thephysical structure of the computer-readable media presented herein. Thespecific transformation of physical structure may depend on variousfactors, in different implementations of this description. Examples ofsuch factors may include, but are not limited to, the technology used toimplement the computer-readable media, whether the computer-readablemedia is characterized as primary or secondary storage, and the like.For example, if the computer-readable media is implemented assemiconductor-based memory, the software disclosed herein may be encodedon the computer-readable media by transforming the physical state of thesemiconductor memory. For example, the software may transform the stateof transistors, capacitors, or other discrete circuit elementsconstituting the semiconductor memory. The software also may transformthe physical state of such components in order to store data thereupon.

As another example, the computer-readable media disclosed herein may beimplemented using magnetic or optical technology. In suchimplementations, the software presented herein may transform thephysical state of magnetic or optical media, when the software isencoded therein. These transformations may include altering the magneticcharacteristics of particular locations within given magnetic media.These transformations also may include altering the physical features orcharacteristics of particular locations within given optical media, tochange the optical characteristics of those locations. Othertransformations of physical media are possible without departing fromthe scope and spirit of the present description, with the foregoingexamples provided only to facilitate this discussion.

In light of the above, it should be appreciated that many types ofphysical transformations may take place in the mobile device 400 inorder to store and execute the software components presented herein. Itis also contemplated that the mobile device 400 may not include all ofthe components shown in FIG. 4, may include other components that arenot explicitly shown in FIG. 4, or may utilize an architecturecompletely different than that shown in FIG. 4.

Turning now to FIG. 5, details of a network 500 are illustrated,according to an illustrative embodiment. The network 500 includes acellular network 502, a packet data network 504, and a circuit switchednetwork 506 (e.g., a public switched telephone network). In someembodiments, the network 136 (shown in FIG. 1) is configured, at leastin part, like the network 500.

The cellular network 502 includes various components such as, but notlimited to, base transceiver stations (“BTSs”), Node-Bs or e-Node-Bs,base station controllers (“BSCs”), radio network controllers (“RNCs”),mobile switching centers (“MSCs”), mobility management entities(“MMEs”), short message service centers (“SMSCs”), multimedia messagingservice centers (“MMSCs”), home location registers (“HLRs”), homesubscriber servers (“HSSs”), visitor location registers (“VLRs”),charging platforms, billing platforms, voicemail platforms, GPRS corenetwork components, location service nodes, and the like. The cellularnetwork 502 also includes radios and nodes for receiving andtransmitting voice, data, and combinations thereof to and from radiotransceivers, networks, the packet data network 504, and the circuitswitched network 506.

A mobile communications device 508, such as, for example, a cellulartelephone, a user equipment, a mobile terminal, a PDA, a laptopcomputer, a handheld computer, the technician device 116, andcombinations thereof, can be operatively connected to the cellularnetwork 502. The cellular network 502 can be configured as a 2G GSMnetwork and can provide data communications via GPRS and/or EDGE.Additionally, or alternatively, the cellular network 502 can beconfigured as a 3G UMTS network and can provide data communications viathe HSPA protocol family, for example, HSDPA, EUL (also referred to asHSUPA), and HSPA+. The cellular network 502 also is compatible with 4Gmobile communications standards such as LTE, or the like, as well asevolved and future mobile standards.

The packet data network 504 includes various devices, for example,servers, computers, databases, and other devices in communication withanother, as is generally known. In some embodiments, the packet datanetwork 504 is or includes one or more WI-FI networks, each of which caninclude one or more WI-FI access points, routers, switches, and otherWI-FI network components. The packet data network 504 devices areaccessible via one or more network links. The servers often storevarious files that are provided to a requesting device such as, forexample, a computer, a terminal, a smartphone, or the like. Typically,the requesting device includes software (a “browser”) for executing aweb page in a format readable by the browser or other software. Otherfiles and/or data may be accessible via “links” in the retrieved files,as is generally known. In some embodiments, the packet data network 504includes or is in communication with the Internet. The circuit switchednetwork 506 includes various hardware and software for providing circuitswitched communications. The circuit switched network 506 may include,or may be, what is often referred to as a plain old telephone system(“POTS”). The functionality of a circuit switched network 506 or othercircuit-switched network are generally known and will not be describedherein in detail.

The illustrated cellular network 502 is shown in communication with thepacket data network 504 and a circuit switched network 506, though itshould be appreciated that this is not necessarily the case. One or moreInternet-capable devices 510, for example, the technician device 116,the vehicle system 118, a PC, a laptop, a portable device, or anothersuitable device, can communicate with one or more cellular networks 502,and devices connected thereto, through the packet data network 504. Italso should be appreciated that the Internet-capable device 510 cancommunicate with the packet data network 504 through the circuitswitched network 506, the cellular network 502, and/or via othernetworks (not illustrated).

As illustrated, a communications device 512, for example, a telephone,facsimile machine, modem, computer, or the like, can be in communicationwith the circuit switched network 506, and therethrough to the packetdata network 504 and/or the cellular network 502. It should beappreciated that the communications device 512 can be anInternet-capable device, and can be substantially similar to theInternet-capable device 510.

Turning now to FIG. 6, an illustrative cloud computing platform 600 willbe described, according to an illustrative embodiment. The tool trackingsystem 134 and/or other networks, systems, and/or devices disclosedherein can be implemented and/or controlled, at least in part, in/by thecloud computing platform 600.

The cloud computing platform 600 includes a physical environment 602, avirtualization layer 604, and a virtual environment 606. While noconnections are shown in FIG. 6, it should be understood that some,none, or all of the components illustrated in FIG. 6 can be configuredto interact with one other to carry out various functions describedherein. In some embodiments, the components are arranged so as tocommunicate via one or more networks. Thus, it should be understood thatFIG. 6 and the remaining description are intended to provide a generalunderstanding of a suitable environment in which various aspects of theembodiments described herein can be implemented, and should not beconstrued as being limiting in any way.

The physical environment 602 provides hardware resources that, in theillustrated embodiment, include one or more physical compute resources608, one or more physical memory resources 610, and one or more otherphysical resources 612. The physical compute resource(s) 608 can includeone or more hardware components that perform computations to processdata and/or to execute computer-executable instructions of one or moreapplication programs, one or more operating systems, and/or othersoftware. The physical compute resources 608 can include one or morecentral processing units (“CPUs”) configured with one or more processingcores. The physical compute resources 608 can include one or moregraphics processing unit (“GPU”) configured to accelerate operationsperformed by one or more CPUs, and/or to perform computations to processdata, and/or to execute computer-executable instructions of one or moreapplication programs, one or more operating systems, and/or othersoftware that may or may not include instructions particular to graphicscomputations. In some embodiments, the physical compute resources 608can include one or more discrete GPUs. In some other embodiments, thephysical compute resources 608 can include CPU and GPU components thatare configured in accordance with a co-processing CPU/GPU computingmodel, wherein the sequential part of an application executes on the CPUand the computationally-intensive part is accelerated by the GPUprocessing capabilities. The physical compute resources 608 can includeone or more system-on-chip (“SoC”) components along with one or moreother components, including, for example, one or more of the physicalmemory resources 610, and/or one or more of the other physical resources612. In some embodiments, the physical compute resources 608 can be orcan include one or more SNAPDRAGON SoCs, available from QUALCOMM of SanDiego, Calif.; one or more TEGRA SoCs, available from NVIDIA of SantaClara, Calif.; one or more HUMMINGBIRD SoCs, available from SAMSUNG ofSeoul, South Korea; one or more Open Multimedia Application Platform(“OMAP”) SoCs, available from TEXAS INSTRUMENTS of Dallas, Tex.; one ormore customized versions of any of the above SoCs; and/or one or moreproprietary SoCs. The physical compute resources 608 can be or caninclude one or more hardware components architected in accordance withan ARM architecture, available for license from ARM HOLDINGS ofCambridge, United Kingdom. Alternatively, the physical compute resources608 can be or can include one or more hardware components architected inaccordance with an x86 architecture, such an architecture available fromINTEL CORPORATION of Mountain View, California, and others. Thoseskilled in the art will appreciate the implementation of the physicalcompute resources 608 can utilize various computation architectures, andas such, the physical compute resources 608 should not be construed asbeing limited to any particular computation architecture or combinationof computation architectures, including those explicitly disclosedherein.

The physical memory resource(s) 610 can include one or more hardwarecomponents that perform storage/memory operations, including temporaryor permanent storage operations. In some embodiments, the physicalmemory resource(s) 610 include volatile and/or non-volatile memoryimplemented in any method or technology for storage of information suchas computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, orother data disclosed herein. Computer storage media includes, but is notlimited to, random access memory (“RAM”), read-only memory (“ROM”),Erasable Programmable ROM (“EPROM”), Electrically Erasable ProgrammableROM (“EEPROM”), flash memory or other solid state memory technology,CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (“DVD”), or other optical storage,magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to storedata and which can be accessed by the physical compute resources 608.

The other physical resource(s) 612 can include any other hardwareresources that can be utilized by the physical compute resources(s) 608and/or the physical memory resource(s) 610 to perform operationsdescribed herein. The other physical resource(s) 612 can include one ormore input and/or output processors (e.g., network interface controlleror wireless radio), one or more modems, one or more codec chipset, oneor more pipeline processors, one or more fast Fourier transform (“FFT”)processors, one or more digital signal processors (“DSPs”), one or morespeech synthesizers, and/or the like.

The physical resources operating within the physical environment 602 canbe virtualized by one or more virtual machine monitors (not shown; alsoknown as “hypervisors”) operating within the virtualization/controllayer 604 to create virtual resources that reside in the virtualenvironment 606. The virtual machine monitors can be or can includesoftware, firmware, and/or hardware that alone or in combination withother software, firmware, and/or hardware, creates and manages virtualresources operating within the virtual environment 606.

The virtual resources operating within the virtual environment 606 caninclude abstractions of at least a portion of the physical computeresources 608, the physical memory resources 610, and/or the otherphysical resources 612, or any combination thereof, shown as virtualcompute resources 614, virtual memory resources 616, and other virtualresources 618, respectively. In some embodiments, the abstractions caninclude one or more virtual machines upon which one or more applicationscan be executed.

Based on the foregoing, it should be appreciated that concepts andtechnologies for automated equipment tracking for service technicianshave been disclosed herein. Although the subject matter presented hereinhas been described in language specific to computer structural features,methodological and transformative acts, specific computing machinery,and computer-readable media, it is to be understood that the inventiondefined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to thespecific features, acts, or media described herein. Rather, the specificfeatures, acts and mediums are disclosed as example forms ofimplementing the claims.

The subject matter described above is provided by way of illustrationonly and should not be construed as limiting. Various modifications andchanges may be made to the subject matter described herein withoutfollowing the example embodiments and applications illustrated anddescribed, and without departing from the true spirit and scope of thesubject disclosure.

1. A tool tracking system comprising: a processor; and a memory havingcomputer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed bythe processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprisingcollecting, from a vehicle system of a vehicle, tool data associatedwith a tool to be utilized by a service technician to provide, at leastin part, a service at a customer location, storing the tool data in adata store, mapping the tool data to the vehicle, determining that thetool is no longer mapped to the vehicle, and in response to determiningthat the tool is no longer mapped to the vehicle, creating an alert. 2.The tool tracking system of claim 1, wherein collecting, from thevehicle system of the vehicle, the tool data comprises collecting, fromthe vehicle system of the vehicle, the tool data in response to a scanperformed by the vehicle system to identify the tool via a tool sensorassociated with the tool, wherein the tool data comprises a sensoraddress that uniquely identifies the tool sensor.
 3. The tool trackingsystem of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise collecting,from the vehicle system of the vehicle, vehicle data that uniquelyidentifies the vehicle and a location of the vehicle when the scan wasperformed.
 4. The tool tracking system of claim 3, wherein mapping thetool data to the vehicle comprises mapping the tool data to the vehicledata and to the location of the vehicle after the scan was performed. 5.The tool tracking system of claim 4, wherein determining that the toolis no longer mapped to the vehicle comprises determining that the toolis no longer mapped to the vehicle based upon a further scan performedby the vehicle system, wherein the further scan does not identify thesensor address that uniquely identifies the tool sensor.
 6. The tooltracking system of claim 5, wherein the operations further compriseproviding the alert to a device associated with the service technicianto inform the service technician that the tool is no longer mapped tothe vehicle.
 7. The tool tracking system of claim 5, wherein theoperations further comprise providing the alert to a service providermanagement system that can present the alert to a supervisor of theservice technician to inform the supervisor that the tool is no longermapped to the vehicle.
 8. A computer-readable storage medium havingcomputer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by aprocessor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:collecting, from a vehicle system of a vehicle, tool data associatedwith a tool to be utilized by a service technician to provide, at leastin part, a service at a customer location; storing the tool data in adata store; mapping the tool data to the vehicle; determining that thetool is no longer mapped to the vehicle; and in response to determiningthat the tool is no longer mapped to the vehicle, creating an alert. 9.The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein collecting,from the vehicle system of the vehicle, the tool data comprisescollecting, from the vehicle system of the vehicle, the tool data inresponse to a scan performed by the vehicle system to identify the toolvia a tool sensor associated with the tool, wherein the tool datacomprises a sensor address that uniquely identifies the tool sensor. 10.The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the operationsfurther comprise collecting, from the vehicle system of the vehicle,vehicle data that uniquely identifies the vehicle and a location of thevehicle when the scan was performed.
 11. The computer-readable storagemedium of claim 10, wherein mapping the tool data to the vehiclecomprises mapping the tool data to the vehicle data and to the locationof the vehicle after the scan was performed.
 12. The computer-readablestorage medium of claim 11, wherein determining that the tool is nolonger mapped to the vehicle comprises determining that the tool is nolonger mapped to the vehicle based upon a further scan performed by thevehicle system, wherein the further scan does not identify the sensoraddress that uniquely identifies the tool sensor.
 13. Thecomputer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the operationsfurther comprise providing the alert to a device associated with theservice technician to inform the service technician that the tool is nolonger mapped to the vehicle.
 14. The computer-readable storage mediumof claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise providing the alertto a service provider management system that can present the alert to asupervisor of the service technician to inform the supervisor that thetool is no longer mapped to the vehicle.
 15. A method comprising:collecting, from a vehicle system of a vehicle, by a tool trackingsystem comprising a processor, tool data associated with a tool to beutilized by a service technician to provide, at least in part, a serviceat a customer location; storing, by the tool tracking system, the tooldata in a data store; mapping, by the tool tracking system, the tooldata to the vehicle; determining, by the tool tracking system, that thetool is no longer mapped to the vehicle; and in response to determiningthat the tool is no longer mapped to the vehicle, creating, by the tooltracking system, an alert.
 16. The method of claim 15, whereincollecting, from the vehicle system of the vehicle, by the tool trackingsystem, the tool data comprises collecting, from the vehicle system ofthe vehicle, by the tool tracking system, the tool data in response to ascan performed by the vehicle system to identify the tool via a toolsensor associated with the tool, wherein the tool data comprises asensor address that uniquely identifies the tool sensor.
 17. The methodof claim 16, further comprising collecting, from the vehicle system ofthe vehicle, by the tool tracking system, vehicle data that uniquelyidentifies the vehicle and a location of the vehicle when the scan wasperformed.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein mapping, by the tooltracking system, the tool data to the vehicle comprises mapping the tooldata to the vehicle data and to the location of the vehicle after thescan was performed.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein determining, bythe tool tracking system, that the tool is no longer mapped to thevehicle comprises determining, by the tool tracking system, that thetool is no longer mapped to the vehicle based upon a further scanperformed by the vehicle system, wherein the further scan does notidentify the sensor address that uniquely identifies the tool sensor.20. The method of claim 19, further comprising providing the alert to adevice associated with the service technician to inform the servicetechnician that the tool is no longer mapped to the vehicle.